Chapter 1: Unattached

"Ashley!" Scarlett whispered loudly to get her brother's attention as she opened a door and waved him in to follow her.

"Scarlett...who are you hiding from here?" He asked following his sister into the Wilkes's library and glancing around for anyone else in the room. "What are you up to? Why aren't you upstairs resting with the other girls?"

Scarlett walked farther into the room considering what to say to her brother.

"What is this, Scarlett? A secret?" he questioned, perplexed why his sister was hiding from all her adoring beaux to talk to her brother.

"Well, Ashley, Ashley... You can't marry Melanie!" She blurted

"Scarlett…" he'd had a feeling Scarlett would be angry with his decision to marry. They had always been close and she had practically worshiped him since he'd come home from his Grand Tour. He loved his oldest sister very much. She was everything he wished he were himself, full of life and vivacious, but he wasn't her. He had found everything he could ever hope for with Melanie and once Scarlett got to know her like he did, he knew Scarlett would adore Melanie too.

"She's not right for you Ashley, she's not!" Scarlett protested passionately.

"My dear, Melanie is just like me. She loves what I love."

"No! She's so reserved and dreary, she's nothing like you at all!" Scarlett said, her voice rising slightly before she caught herself.

"Darling, just because I'm marrying Melanie doesn't mean you'll be any less dear to me. Isn't it enough that you gathered every other man's heart today? You always had mine. You cut your teeth on it." Ashley tried to reassure his sister.

"Oh stop teasing me!" Scarlett exclaimed impassioned, "Melanie's a mousy little thing – she could never make you happy!"

Ashley shook his head dismissively, "You mustn't say such things. You'll hate me for hearing them."

Scarlett clutched onto her brother's hands fiercely, "Oh, I could never hate you! I love you and don't want you to make a terrible mistake."

"I'm going to marry Melanie." He said looking at her closely.

"But you can't, not if you listen to me!" Scarlett broke her hands away from her brother's grasp angrily and turning her back to him. She would pout and protest like she always did. Surely he will agree with her, she thought. Her brother could never say no to her.

"Oh my dear, why must you make me say things that will hurt you? How can I make you understand? You're so young and I'm thinking you don't know what marriage means." Ashley walked up to his sister and placed his hands hesitantly on her shoulders. It pained him to oppose his sister, but this was one position he would not budge on. Despite his determination, that didn't make it any easier. Scarlett had always been his favorite person and he loved her more than anyone else, even more than his dear mother, but Melanie was his other half. He had never imagined that anyone could compliment his personality as much as Melanie does. Yes, his sister was dear to him, but Melanie was a new part of his life that he was beginning to cherish just as much.

"You don't love Melanie." Scarlett protested, sounding like the small child in dark ringlets he remembered.

"She's like me, Scarlett. She's part of my blood, we understand each other."

"But you love me too…" Scarlett turned around to look at her brother. "Why don't you care what I think of her?"

"How could I help loving you? You have all the passion for life that I lack. But Melanie and I will make a successful marriage."

Scarlett was beginning to feel that she would not persuade her brother and her temper began to flare violently, "Why don't you say it, you coward? You want to live with a silly little fool who can't open her mouth except to say "yes", "no", and raise a houseful of mealy-mouthed brats just like her!"

"You mustn't say things like that about Melanie." Ashley said stunned at his sister's violent outburst.

"It's true! You're not enough of a man to have a wife with a spine Ashley O'Hara!" Scarlett yelled loudly.

Ashley's face grew red out of embarrassment for his sister and anger that she would oppose his decision and says such horrible things about his bride. He took an exaggerated breath, then turned and left his sister standing in the middle of the Wilkes's library ready to scream from frustration.

"Agh! I hate you Ashley O'Hara! I'll hate you 'till I die!" Scarlett screamed at the closed door. She noticed a vase on a side table and grabbed it, flinging it at the fireplace in her anger.

A low whistle emerged from behind the sofa and Scarlett's eyes grew wide as a dark haired man raised up from behind the couch. She let out a soft "oh" and her anger immediately turned to surprise and embarrassment.

"Has the war started?" he asked laughing.

"Sir, you...you should have made your presence known."

"In the middle of that beautiful family scene? That wouldn't have been very tactful, would it? But don't worry. Your secret is safe with me." Rhett stood from his hiding place behind the couch and examined the young lady in front of him. He didn't know exactly who this Scarlett O'Hara was, but he certainly wanted to find out. Her passion was something he had never seen from any other woman. Hearing her jelousy, anger and determination would have scared away most other men, but he wanted to see her passion expressed toward him.

"Sir, you are no gentleman." Scarlett stated in a haughty tone.

The intended insult had no effect on Rhett, "And you miss are no lady." Scarlett opened her mouth to protest, but Rhett cut her off "Don't think that I hold that against you. Ladies have never held any charm for me." Rhett smiled at his worthy opponent, thoroughly enjoying her anger.

"First you take a low, common advantage of me, then you insult me!" Scarlett was taken aback by this low down skunk who spoke to her so flippantly after imposing on her private family matters. This man made her to mad she could scream!

"I meant it as a compliment. And I hope to see more of you when you've gotten over your anger towards the elegant Mr. O'Hara. He doesn't strike me as half good enough for your...what was it...your passion for living? You should spend your precious time fighting for more important causes."

This statement did nothing to ease Scarlett's anger, "How dare you! You aren't fit to wipe his boots!" she yelled, storing toward the door.

"And you were going to hate him for the rest of your life." Rhett laughed after her.

Scarlett slammed the door behind her and was startled at the sight of men yelling and everyone running about in chaos. She knew what was happening – the war had started – but she was still startled to see it actually happen. She had heard talk of the war for as long as she could remember and despite the attacks two weeks ago, it was hard to believe the war was actually here.

Charles Hamilton came running up to Scarlett "Miss O' Hara! Miss O' Hara, isn't it thrilling? Mr. Lincoln has called the soldiers, volunteers to fight against us!" He told her like a child excited to share the news of a new toy.

Scarlett rolled her eyes at the blonde boy in front of her, "Oh, fiddle-dee-dee. Don't you men ever think about anything important?"

"But it's war, Miss O'Hara! And everybody's going off to enlist, they're going right away. I'm going, too!"

"Everybody?" Scarlett ran to a window in time to see her dear brother bidding farewell to Melanie Hamilton. She 'huffed' in disdain as they embraced in a public kiss, very out of character for them both.

"Oh, Miss O'Hara, will you be sorry? To see us go"

"I'll cry to my pillow every night." She stated halfheartedly.

Charles's heart beat accelerated, he was more excited than he'd ever been in his short, naive life. "Oh, Miss O'Hara, I've told you I loved you. I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world. And the sweetest, the dearest…" he rattled on, unaware of Scarlett ignoring his every word. "I know that I couldn't hope that you could love me, so clumsy and stupid, not nearly good enough for you. But if you could, if you could think of marrying me, I'd do anything in the world for you, just anything, I promise!"

"Oh, what did you say?" Scarlett questioned, having missed every word.

"Miss O'Hara, I said, would you marry me?"

Scarlett turned to Charles and looked him over. He was so young, only a year her elder and he was even more spineless and mousy than his sister. Whenever Scarlett had seen him he had always been clinging to Melanie's skirts like a child after its mother. How could this simpering boy ever think she would marry him? Why, a marriage between Scarlett O'Hara and Charles Hamilton was as preposterous as a marriage between Ashley O'Hara and Melanie Hamilton. She almost laughed at the absurdity of being tied to him, having to see him every day for the rest of her life.

"No Mr. Hamilton, I'm sorry, but I do not believe we would fit at all.

"Oh, but Miss O'Hara I just -" he protested desperately.

"I have no desire to marry you." She said putting a stop to any further protest.

"Al-alright Miss O'Hara…" he said backing away from her, like a child that had just been spanked.

Scarlett turned back to the window to watch every one of her beaux ride off to town to enlist. Melanie would want to marry before Ashley left for the war, which would only be a few days. Scarlett felt defeated for possibly the first time. There was very little possibility she would be able to convince Ashley to not marry before he rode off to join his troops. All the men had such silly notions in their head that they had to marry and put a child in their wife's belly before they went off to war to get shot at. While they were off having the time of their lives shooting at Yankees they wanted their wives stuck at home with a baby attacked to their breast. Well she's be damned if she'd be one of them. She's show Ashley how wrong he was to have a simpering wife clinging to him at such an early age. She'd have all the fun in the world while he was stuck with Melanie forever. She'd show him and he's be pea green with envy of all the fun she'd have being young and attached to no one.